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Candidates Vie For Afghan Women's Vote

Female supporters of Afghan vice presidential candidate, Habiba Sarabi
and Afghan presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul hold flags with his
photo and two vice presidential candidate's during a campaign rally in
Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan vice presidential candidate strode down
the aisle separating hundreds of male and female supporters at a
campaign rally in Kabul. She shook hands with the women filling the
chairs to her right. To the men on the other side, she simply nodded.
Writing on the flags reads, "vote for Zalmai Rassoul."

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (AP) — The candidate strode down
the aisle separating hundreds of male and female supporters at a
campaign rally in Kabul. She shook hands with the women filling the
chairs to her right. To the men on the other side, she simply nodded.

Habiba Sarabi is the most prominent woman running
on a ticket in the April 5 election to choose a successor to President
Hamid Karzai. Sarabi once served as Afghanistan's first female governor,
and her current bid to become Afghanistan's first female vice president
is part of an effort to get out the women's vote as candidates scramble
for every ballot.

Women "can affect the transition, the political transition," she said
in an interview after addressing the rally to support Sarabi and her
running mate, presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul. The event was held
in a wedding hall in a Kabul district dominated by her ethnic minority
Hazara community.
But Sarabi, a 57-year-old former governor of
Bamiyan province, still must conform to cultural norms in this deeply
conservative Islamic society. Her challenge highlights the difficulties
facing Afghan women who worry about losing hard-won gains as
international combat forces prepare to withdraw from the country by the
end of this year.

Afghan women were granted the right to vote in the
constitution adopted after the U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban
regime in late 2001. Under the Taliban, women were also banned from
school and forced to wear the all-encompassing burqa.

But security concerns have marred their
participation in previous elections. In areas of the country still
controlled by the Taliban, women have been threatened with violence if
they vote. In 2009, many Afghan women registered but then gave their
voting cards to male relatives, who ended up casting multiple ballots as
polling officials and police conveniently looked away — one of many
forms of fraud that tarnished Karzai's re-election.

Although voting cards are supposed to include a
photo for identification, in some areas women refused to be
photographed. Naheed Farid, a lawmaker from the western province of
Herat, predicted fraud will be rampant this year as well.

"I am so optimistic that we will have more women to
vote in this election, but who they vote for and what happens to their
vote will be a problem," she said in a telephone interview. "There's
lack of awareness that women can decide on their own, and families
especially the fathers have an influence, and this is something we can't
change now, not this time."

Still, she and others said, there are signs of
progress. There are nine candidates in the crowded race, but only three
are considered front-runners — Rassoul; Abdullah Abdullah, who was
runner-up to Karzai in the disputed 2009 election; and Ashraf Ghani
Ahmadzai.

Gul Makai Safi, the head of the women's council for
Abdullah's campaign, said women are streaming into their offices to
learn about the process. She expressed concern that women in areas where
militants are active will be unable to vote.

"We are very hopeful and optimistic that this time
the women's vote will decide the fate of the candidates in the
election," she said. "Women will bring a change in the result of the
election this time."

Ahmadzai's wife, Rula, has even stumped for votes
at campaign events, something that is very rare in a country where the
current first lady has almost never appeared in public. There are
officially 12 million eligible voters in Afghanistan, according to the
Independent Election Commission, but the number of people who go to the
polls may be higher because many voter cards were issued in past
elections and are unaccounted for. Since registration began last year
for next month's election, the commission has document 3.6 million new
voters, including 1.2 million women.

Volunteers have visited villages and districts
around the country to inform women about the issues and how their
participation could help improve their lives. But many obstacles remain.
To help prevent suicide bombings and other attacks, police will search
voters before they are allowed to enter the polling stations. The
Interior Ministry said it is training 13,000 women to search female
voters, but there is concern there will be too few of them — and that
some women will be turned away from the polls as a result.

And even in Kabul, some women have no idea how to
register. "No one guided us and we haven't got voting cards now. If we
could get our voting cards, we could have fulfilled our part in making
the government," said Gul Sara, a woman living in an internal refugee
camp in the Afghan capital.
Activists also warned the situation has not changed
in areas where the Taliban remain active and conservative mores are
entrenched, including many parts of the east and in the southern
provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

Covered from head to toe in a black veil in
downtown Kandahar city, Shaqiba Ahmadi acknowledged the difficulties
facing women and chastised the government for not doing more on their
behalf. "I think we have to try harder," the 20-year-old tailor said.
"Afghan women are not very active. They should vote. I will vote."

The hall in Kabul where vice presidential candidate
Sarabi gave her address was packed equally with men and women, though
they sat on separate sides of the room. Sitting at the rally with a
turquoise campaign scarf draped over her head, Gul Chaman said she plans
to vote for the first time.

"I didn't care in the last election and I couldn't
figure out how to get a voting card," said Chaman, who has nine
grandchildren. "I hope the election will bring security, reconstruction
and prosperity and stability to Afghanistan."

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